As Sanburn points out, in 1984 the FTC passed a law called the Funeral Rule, which, among other things, bars the aggressive selling of services not required by the law, such as embalming.

“It took two decades for the federal government to implement the 1984 Funeral Rule to crack down on some of the industry’s practices,” Sanburn wrote last Friday. “But even with the 30-year-old rule in effect and the threat of financial penalties, a significant number of homes still don’t appear to be complying.”